When asked, "What are the three most important things in retailing?" many retailers respond, "Location, location, location!" Store location is one of the most important decisions a retailer can make.
There are five keys to success in retail: location; marketing; store layout and appearance; service and assortment, and bundle selling. Let's take a look at how each of these can help you establish a successful retail operation.
1. The customer is the most important person in your business. The main retail principle to master is: the customer is king. They should be at the centre of your business, and everything you do must revolve around customer needs.
How does the retail calendar work? The retail calendar breaks the year down into 12 months and 52 weeks and defines each month to be either 4 weeks or 5 weeks. Note that the calendar begins in February, which has 4 weeks, followed by March which has 5 weeks and April which goes back to 4 weeks, i.e. 4-5-4.
A transparent store is also one that consumers can understand. It feels familiar and comfortable. Products are organized in ways that make sense. The store layout and product presentation are consistent with expectations.
9 proven strategies for how to grow your retail success
- Court customers who can pay full price.
- Attract new customers with great windows, an engaging website, a blog and social media.
- Pay your employees more.
- Train your employees on an ongoing basis.
- Curate your merchandise SKUs.
- Engage the customer in the best way.
“This is where there are new emotional points for the retailer to discover,” Wolfgang says. It could be an emotional highlight for the client, and that feeling of learning something, of gaining something, is connected to the emotions—the brain of the client. That's emotive retailing.”
Retailers are competing in a marketplace today where consumers' expectations of the customer experience is elevated beyond simply finding and getting a product. The human element in retail is the most important factor in attracting customers and driving sales in-store, not product.
The following list shows which months have five paydays during those years:
- 2021: January, April, July, October, December.
- 2022: April, July, September, December.
- 2023: March, June, September, December.
- 2024: March, May, August, November.
- 2025: January, May, August, October.
- 2026: January, May, July, October.
Quarters
- First quarter, Q1: 1 January – 31 March (90 days or 91 days in leap years)
- Second quarter, Q2: 1 April – 30 June (91 days)
- Third quarter, Q3: 1 July – 30 September (92 days)
- Fourth quarter, Q4: 1 October – 31 December (92 days)
The 4-5-4 Calendar divides the year into 4 and 5 week periods (months). The first period has 4 weeks, the next 5 weeks, then 4 weeks and the process is repeated so that the fourth month starts over with 4 weeks.
The current Week Number is WN 20.
There are exactly 53 Fridays in the year 2021. Most years have 365 days, but a leap year has 366 days.
A fiscal year is important for accounting purposes and for preparing annual financial statements. Because the fiscal year straddles two different calendar years, the calendar year and fiscal year will not always match. For example, Fiscal Year 2021 runs from July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021.
For example, the 4-4-5 accounting cycle means that in each quarter, the first financial period consists of the first four weeks, the second period consists of the next four weeks, and the third period consists if the next five weeks.
The 4-4-5 Calendar Offers Several BenefitsWith a 4-4-5 calendar, the standard 52-week year divides into four 13-week quarters, which comprise three periods split into a four-week, four-week, five-week format.
An ISO week-numbering year (also called ISO year informally) has 52 or 53 full weeks. That is 364 or 371 days instead of the usual 365 or 366 days. The extra week is sometimes referred to as a leap week, although ISO 8601 does not use this term. Each week's year is the Gregorian year in which the Thursday falls.
The standard calendar quarters that make up the year are as follows:
- January, February, and March (Q1)
- April, May, and June (Q2)
- July, August, and September (Q3)
- October, November, and December (Q4)
A year, occurring once every four years, which has 366 days including 29 February as an integral day is called a Leap year. 2021 is not a leap year and has 365 days like a common year. That is a leap year. 2020 was a leap and was one of a kind year.
Federal Government Fiscal YearIt defines the U.S. government's budget. FY 2021 is between October 1, 2020 and September 30, 2021. FY 2020 is the budget for October 1, 2019 through September 30, 2020.
